


Abducted

by devilinthedetails



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Abduction, Action, Adventure, Friendship, Gen, Rescue, mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-01 19:57:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20263687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilinthedetails/pseuds/devilinthedetails
Summary: In trying to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a planetary leader, Qui-Gon finds himself abducted and in need of Obi-Wan's rescue.





	Abducted

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 24 hour mod challenge at the Jedi Council Forums featuring a trope of a "Benched Hero," the word bombinate (which means to make a humming or buzzing sound), and the image of heavy-load crane chains. Thanks to the mods for coming up with this challenge to inspire my creativity. I never would have come up with this story without these interesting prompts!

Abducted

Vaowai was a world of corporations that seemed to be in constant, cutthroat competition to see which corporation could be the most corrupt and criminal. In his short time on the heavily industrialized world, Obi-Wan was learning that the term “cutthroat” could be applied quite literally to how the corporate leaders on Vaowai dealt with the families of their rivals in the political and economic sphere. 

He and his Master had been dispatched to Vaowai to protect Chief Executive Chen Yile of Vaowai, who had feared assassination as her legislation to increase the emissions standards factories on Vaowai would be required to adhere to neared voting in the planetary senate. In the end, it had been a kidnapping of Chen Yile’s daughter, Chen Linlin, from her well-guarded nursery in the night rather than assassination the Chief Executive should have feared. 

Chen Linlin’s abduction had been pulled off so smoothly and silently—without a ripple of alarm from the guards to alert the Jedi—that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon suspected it must have been an inside job by sentries bribed by one of the corporations with interests in ensuring the continued pollution of Vaowai’s atmosphere. 

They questioned the guards who should have been standing watch over Chen Linlin when she was abducted, but received only vague answers about the girl’s disappearance and hollow assurances that she would be found in response. The hard shell of the insectoid Vaowai was almost impossible to penetrate even with the aid of the Force, and Obi-Wan could only sense their agitation, which could be attributable either to guilt at involvement in Chen Linlin’s kidnaping or merely to anxiety at her disappearance and being asked to account for it. In other words, Obi-Wan could frustratingly draw no conclusion from their agitation. 

The body language of the Vaowai was no more helpful in understanding the innocence or guilt of the guards, Obi-Wan thought as they gave their slippery replies. With every answer they offered, the Vaowai would bombinate their pincers. It was an annoying sound that gave Obi-Wan a piercing headache by the hundredth time he heard it, but he was certain it didn’t count as evidence of innocence or guilt. 

In the midst of this unprofitable questioning, Qui-Gon’s comlink buzzed. Following Qui-Gon out into the corridor, Obi-Wan heard Chief Executive Chen Yile say, pincers humming, “Come to my office. A ransom letter has arrived.” 

“We’ll be there at once,” Qui-Gon assured her, and together they rushed to the turbolift, which they rode to Chen Yile’s office on the highest level of her residence overlooking the smog-filled, perpetually durasteel gray sky of Vaowai’s capital city. 

The guards outside her office granted them admission without challenge, and she invited them to sit in chairs across from her with a sweep of a pincer. As they did so, she pushed a note created from letters cut out of a holozine across the polished Greel wood desk for the Jedi to read. The note, they saw, offered to meet with the Jedi alone at sunset in a factory that was being constructed on the outskirts of the city to negotiate the terms of Chen Linlin’s release but threatened to kill her if the Jedi were suspected of bringing any security to the factory as backup. 

“I’ll meet with them to negotiate the terms of Chen Linlin’s release.” Qui-Gon’s grave words made Obi-Wan gape. 

“Are you certain?” Chen Yile’s pincers gave a fretful click as punctuation for her question. “What if it’s a trick? What if they take you hostage as well?” 

“That’s why Obi-Wan won’t accompany me.” Qui-Gon waved away her concern. “I’ll rely on him to secure my release and your daughter’s if I’m taken captive.” 

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to argue that this was madness but closed his jaw when Qui-Gon shot him a quelling look. He pressed his lips to lock in his objection as Qui-Gon addressed the Chief Executive, “With your permission, I’ll take my leave to discuss strategy with my apprentice.” 

“Of course.” The humming of Chen Yile’s pincers seemed to be intended to indicate assent. “I’d never wish to interfere with the strategy necessary for the success of this important operation.” 

Qui-Gon rose with a bow that Obi-Wan copied out of rote respect, his mind still reeling at the revelation that Qui-Gon planned to meet the kidnappers alone. 

“Don’t do this, please, Master,” he burst out as soon as they had retreated into a private room, securing the door behind them. 

“I need you to keep a Force connection open with me when I meet Chen Linlin’s abductors,” Qui-Gon ordered in a calm voice as if Obi-Wan hadn’t spoken. “That way you’ll learn any information I gain at the meeting and will know at once if anything happens to me.” 

“I might not be able to help you in time if her kidnappers attack you.” Obi-Wan swallowed a lump that suddenly swelled in his throat. 

“Her abductors wouldn’t be looking to kill me—only to take me hostage.” Qui-Gon’s gaze fixed on Obi-Wan’s. “Do you trust my judgment, Padawan.” 

“Yes, Master.” Obi-Wan dropped his eyes to dizzying spirals of the patterned carpet beneath his booted feet, wondering how he could explain that it was his own abilities to maintain a Force connection for such a potentially prolonged, stressful period that he doubted. “It’s my own skills I don’t trust.” 

“I trust your skills.” Qui-Gon rested a gentle but firm hand on Obi-Wan’s shoulder. “You must not give into your doubts, Obi-Wan. When you do, you give your opponents the advantage.” 

“Yes, Master.” Obi-Wan nodded, head and heart heavy as duracrete. 

At sunset, Obi-Wan sat cross-legged in a meditative trance, merging his mind with Qui-Gon’s in a Force connection. He saw the half-constructed, shadowy building through Qui-Gon’s eyes as five hooded Vaowai converged on Qui-Gon. With trepidation, Obi-Wan watched as they led Qui-Gon to an industrial crane, gesturing with clacking pincers for him to climb aboard it. Obi-Wan’s muscles tensed as Qui-Gon obliged, joining the Vaowai on the crane. With an eerie clangor of chains, the crane rose to the top of the half-built factory. 

Voice echoing ominously in the otherwise empty room, one of the hooded Vaowai leaned close to Qui-Gon’s ear to hiss, “You’ll rest easy, Jedi, knowing that Chen Linlin will be safely locked away with one of the trusted guards who stood over her last night until her mother can be persuaded to see the reason of dropping this outrageously strict emissions law.” 

Obi-Wan could feel Qui-Gon’s defenses flaring, but before his Master could act, the Vaowai’s pincer flashed fast as lightning. Obi-Wan felt the needle plunging into Qui-Gon’s flesh as if it were digging into his own skin to find a vein. Obi-Wan glimpsed the distinctive green glow of an extract from a plant native to Vaowai that wasn’t lethal to humans but was strong enough to knock most species—including humans—out for at least a day before Qui-Gon’s eyes shut, the connection between them ebbing away with Qui-Gon’s fading consciousness. 

Blood pounding against his eardrums in an accompaniment to his feet slamming against the floor, Obi-Wan raced to Chen Yile’s office. When he reached it, he panted to the guards standing outside it, “I must see the Chief Executive immediately.” 

Apparently the Chief Executive had left standing orders with her guards that the Jedi were to be admitted to her office whenever they wished for Obi-Wan was granted entry without challenge. 

“What news, Obi-Wan?” Chen Yile turned away from staring out her viewport as he hurried into her office, her expression suggesting she sensed his news was bad. 

“The kidnappers engaged in treachery. I must take a security squad to rescue Master Qui-Gon at once.” Obi-Wan fought to ensure his words didn’t tumble from him in an indecipherable rush. “We were able to learn that your daughter is being kept at the home of one of the guards who was charged with protecting her last night. I suggest you send a security squad to inspect the houses of each of those guards.” 

“I will.” Chen Yile’s pincers were buzzing more rapidly than Obi-Wan had ever seen them. “We will recuse your Master and my daughter, Obi-Wan. The kidnappers will not win.” 

Armed with a lightsaber and a vial of the antidote for the plant extract that had knocked Qui-Gon out from Chen Yile’s medic, Obi-Wan rode with a security squad to the outskirts of the city where the half-built factory Qui-Gon had disappeared in loomed. As they flew toward it, Obi-Wan stared into its shadows with a pair of macrobinoculars, noting to the security team surrounding him, “It appears deserted. Chen Linlin’s abductors must have already vanished.” 

Obi-Wan, stomach knotting, could only hope they had left Qui-Gon when they vacated the factory. It was impossible for him to sense his Master in the Force when Qui-Gon was unconscious. 

When they landed in the factory’s yard among the construction equipment, Obi-Wan assigned half his squad to monitor the perimeter while he took the other half with him on the creaking crane up to the room where he was relived to see that Qui-Gon still lay in a heap on the floor. Kneeling beside the crumpled frame of a man he always thought of as towering, Obi-Wan found a vein on Qui-Gon’s wrist and injected the antidote. 

Jedi healing powers were prodigious, and, within seconds, Qui-Gon’s eyes were blinking. Soon, they had blinked away the haze of the plant extract that had knocked him out and were keenly focusing on Obi-Wan. “Padawan, what have I missed while I was knocked out?” 

“My daring rescue of your glorious person.” Obi-Wan attempted a sly grin to hide the fear he had felt that his Master wouldn’t wake despite the antidote. “And my dispatch of security squads to locate Chen Linlin in the house of whichever guard is holding her captive.” 

“Well done, my young apprentice.” Qui-Gon smiled softly as Obi-Wan lifted him to his feet and the two of them headed toward the crane, flanked by the half of the security team that had accompanied Obi-Wan into the factory to rescue Qui-Gon. “You’ve more than justified my faith in your abilities.”


End file.
